SETTLING UP CAULFIELD CUP WAGERS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1489, 7 November 1918, Page 14

SETTLING UP CAULFIELD CUP WAGERS.

At the Caulfield Cup settling ringmen paid out big sums to backers of King Off a (says a Melbourne correspondent). The ring sustained a big loss. Some of the bookmakers put it down as one of the biggest for many years. One who is intimate with the bookmakers and their operations says King Offa’s success took something like £40,000 out of the ring. The horse was consistently backed from 50 to 1 to 6 to 4, and at the latter price several bookmakers began covering their liabilities, expecting him to start at even money. One of these put £3OOO on him at 6 to 4. Those who did this were fortunate, for the books who delayed backing him were put off by the reports concerning him on the Friday, and in the expectation that King Offa was not a sound horse, decided to stand their full liability. This made the loss to the ring bigger. A bookmaker with an extensive business in Melbourne and Sydney who did the stable commission for King Offa woh a fair-sized fortune on the race, and apart from the owners many Stock Exchange members here were heavy winners. Mr. S. R. Bloomfield, who represents the owners in Australia, put his friends on Change in at a long price, and when he went to business after the race his arrival was greeted by cheering, which lasted quite ten minutes. The money won made it a popular victory for the bulls and bears.